Photo AP /Greenpeace International, Dmitri Sharomov

MOSCOW, October 23 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Investigative Committee has changed the charge for a more lenient charge against the Greenpeace activists, who attacked the Russian offshore oil drilling rig Prirazlomnaya.

“The Russian Investigative Committee has changed the charge of piracy to the charge of hooliganism against the attackers on the Russian offshore oil drilling rig Prirazlomnaya,” spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

If on the charge of piracy they faced up to ten years in prison, a new charge envisages up to seven years in prison at most.

The Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise under the flag of the Netherlands sailed to the Russian offshore oil drilling rig Prirazlomnaya on September 18 in the Pechora Sea. The activists onboard the ship tried to board the drilling rig, calling to stop the drilling in the Arctic. The border guards curbed their action, after that the ship was towed to the port of Murmansk.

In early October at the request of the detectives and the prosecutors the Leninsky district court in Murmansk arrested for two months all 30 people, who were onboard the ship Arctic Sunrise, including citizens from 18 countries, particularly four Russians. They were brought to the detention centres in Murmansk and Murmansk Region.